Human history is loaded with examples of situations where specialization, even for all the progress it often brings, has lead down a dead end when the playing field changed. While specialization is great and definitely needed in many ways, it is critical for us to also pair this specialization with flexibility so as to overcome those inevitable cha…

Regardless of the most current healthcare reform effort, a trend that has been up and coming with the government regarding the reimbursement process, thanks to extensive data/history collection, is a closer and more stringent look at payments associated with hospital readmissions. Rates of readmissions have been fairly high, not only incurring extr…

Most every workplace has (at least) one - the bad apple who always seems to find what's wrong with things and offers no solutions to improve the situation. If you have been listening to Clintcast for awhile, you recognize this type as the ‘troll’ or BMG (Bellyacher/Moaner/Groaner) from other episodes. While every profession has its mistakes/problem…

The position of Director of Nursing is a critical function in any healthcare organization. It is no surprise that the person in this role tends to have a LOT on his/her plate as they cover many bases and must be skilled in some widely varying ways, both in the clinical and the leadership worlds. Clint covers some of these aspects today as he discus…

It is a given in healthcare - our customers expect quality, no different than we would in their place. How we achieve that quality has everything to do with how our organization operates. There are lots of ways we go about driving the quality of our ‘products’ in healthcare, including some aspects such as cost savings, efficiencies, labor streamlin…

To err is human... it happens. That being said, we of course want to minimize the numbers/types of errors we make, especially in healthcare where someone's life could be on the line. Today, Clint discusses methods for setting up an environment where we can minimize the blame and finger-pointing and instead focus on how to fix situations arising fro…

While time-travel, as depicted in Back To The Future, may still be some ways off, in a sense we all take part in some approximation of time-travel everyday. In fact, it is a very healthy exercise in our organizations to occasionally roll-back the clock to examine aspects in the past (How did we solve that problem? What can we learn from that incide…

It should hopefully go without saying for those in the healthcare profession... healthcare is cool! For the youth of today though, it is becoming increasingly harder (especially given the various competing job markets) to have this realized in their career planning years so as to be preparing the next wave of young talent to carry on the coolness o…

For those of you who are Superman fans, you no doubt know about how Clark Kent (Superman’s public identity at the Daily Planet) was able to function within society, seemingly due to nothing more elaborate than a suit and a pair of glasses. When in this disguise, those around him had no clue as to the tremendous strength, superpowers or just all out…

In the people business, there will be times when customers/coworkers/partners/etc will voice their dissatisfaction with how they perceive a situation to be. The manner in which they voice that complaint will vary. Sometimes it may be calm and to the point. Often, it may be shrouded in emotion and include a lot of additional commentary that may or m…

‘Teaming makes it easier’ is a concept that applies not only to the Care Crowd individuals, but also to organizations as a whole as well. Integration and partnerships are increasingly going to be the norm in healthcare for the foreseeable future as we move into an era where cost-savings, care-consistency, reporting/metrics/etc all become more and m…

The first and foremost key to success in healthcare is the realization that it is, after all, a ‘people’ business. As such, if you are not the sort of person that has strong connections to people and strong customer-service orientation, then perhaps healthcare is not the right area for you. Along with this ‘people’ orientation, one needs to be solu…

Bad days happen to everyone at some point. Sometimes, life just throws you a pitch you never saw coming and it catches you off guard. These can't be helped. By contrast, when you are ‘anticipating’ and ‘planning’ on a bad day to come, there are different dynamics in play, many of which can be dealt with. When one ‘plans’ on the upcoming day to be ‘…

The key to ongoing success in healthcare, now and especially in the future, is the ability to deliver customized customer-centric service. While having some organizational ‘boilerplate’ policies/structure in place for general guidance is fine as a starting point, in order to truly institute ‘culture change’, we must rise to the next level and devel…

Way back in Episode #6 of the Clintcast archives, you'll find a story entitled ‘The Ham Sandwich’ which discusses a CEO’s realization that his organization was becoming unable to empower individuals to solve problems at the levels closest to them, resulting in flush-ups of problems all the way to the top. In this revisit to that episode, Clint comm…

In the healthcare profession, it goes without saying that our customers generally would be prefer NOT to be our (or anyone's, for that matter) customers. Some handle this better than others. There is an occasional customer that, for lack of a better term, is a nightmare. Nothing anyone says or does seems to bring satisfaction to this person. How sh…

When you go to your routine physical at the doctor, he/she will likely gather some data about your current condition (pulse, height, weight, etc) in order to be able to both continue a baseline history of your continual health picture as well as to get the current ‘buzz’ about your short-term health snapshot. Using these tools, he/she can then bett…

If you are a leader/manager, chances are you have heard the phrase ‘got a second’ before as someone pops in front of you with an issue that, in fact, will likely take more than a short second/minute/hour to resolve. What you say in return must be well considered if you are going to be effective in your role (and they in theirs) because there is a d…

Many who have worked with Clint or have met him in the past likely know that he is a huge fan of horse racing and that it is one of his favorite hobbies outside of healthcare. In lieu of the past weekend's running of the Kentucky Derby, today Clint discusses while he felt strongly, even months ago, that the horse called Super Saver had a very high …

If you ever played the childhood game ‘telephone’ (also known by many other names), you likely remember how fouled a communication can become as it is passed along/misinterpreted/altered/etc. Unfortunately, real life daily communications often get just as muddled up and the resulting failures to communicate often cost organizations untold dollars a…

The best managers highly involve those at lower levels (closest to the problems) in the problem-solving process. Employees in those areas tend to understand the problem better and also tend to be more familiar with potential solutions. Therefore, they should be highly engaged in the problem-solving process. The decision-making process on the other …

Teaming makes it easier - this concept is the main thrust behind rapid-cycle teams. What about those teams that involve timelines that are much longer than 12-weeks for standard rapid-cycles? Some are required by organizational rules/bylaws/regulations/etc. Some occur at a high level. Like any team meeting, as long as these have a purpose, a priori…

There are sometimes employees that are not performing up to par. This often occurs over a range of possible values of sub-par behavior (such as rare/accidental occurrences, routine limit-testing, flagrant lack of responsibility, etc). As long as this is an employee you have not completely given up on (they are in process of de-hiring), there are so…

Making a difference is important in the healthcare profession. Our customers need and expect this of us, no different than we would if we were in their position. Today, Clint comments about a colleague, client and true difference-maker, Mike Berry, who recently passed away and discusses the long-lasting impacts and positive effects he had on those …

It is a defeatist phrase uttered way too often around the country... ‘oh no, another admission’, indicating that one’s busy day just got busier. Clint affirms that we need to be vigilant in recognizing that another admission is a sign of success that we need to be excited about, even if things are a bit busy at the moment. After all, that customer …

Nothing demonstrates confidence in your own products/services as much as your choice to patronize those very products/services when you, or a friend or family member, needs these healthcare options. Today, Clint chats about the ‘ultimate brag’ which is act of self-promoting through internal channels. Most organizations have a marketing arm of some …

In continuing the theme of teaming makes it easier, today Clint discusses a concept that will quickly be coming to the healthcare market as the reform efforts begin to come into effect. Entities known as ACOs (Accountable Care Organizations) will soon be widespread as the government mandates the concept of teaming and partnering between healthcare …

Occasionally with staff workers there will be times when work performance is not up to what is expected. As a leader, how should one go about dealing with these occurrences. Today, Clint discusses 3 primary types of ‘bad performances’ and ways to deal with them. These include ‘accidental violators, limit-testers and outlaws’. Learn the differences …

As Care Crowd members have learned, in the effort to ‘make things better’, it is true that teaming makes it easier. That said, when a new change arises that will require an altered direction/process/etc in an organization, possibly requiring new ways of doing things, where is a newly formed team supposed to get answers or ideas? As Mr. Dylan said, …

Today, Clint chats with Rick Marshall, Executive Vice President of the Christian Care Communities while working with their organization in Kentucky. Together, they discuss the various forces that are currently at work helping to shape the organization such as legislative changes affecting healthcare, community involvement initiatives, facility upda…

Our customers want to know they are getting the best healthcare possible, just as we would want if in their position. As such, it is critical that we instill in our organizations an expectation that we will deliver that healthcare to the utmost... 1st place, if you will. Even when we fall a little short of perfection, we have a self-correcting, eve…

In the healthcare profession, as in many businesses, it is the cash flow/payment/reimbursement process that is the lifeblood that enables us to do what we do... in this case, to take care of people. In healthcare in particular, there are ample opportunities for mistakes to occur which can deprive us of money that is rightly/morally/ethically/etc ou…

Care Crowd Creed #3 - Teaming makes it easier... While lots has been discussed in prior episodes as to the advantages teaming in organizations, less has been covered in regards to how those teams are formed in the first place. In today’s episode, Clint elaborates on the reasons why it is often helpful to have the team leader handpick many of the po…

Clint has discussed ‘step-up’ behavior in previous podcasts - it is that ability and innate drive to take things to the next level of effort when it is called for in order to ensure success. This extra effort has the added benefit of not only ensuring this success, but it brings about added bonuses in the process. Listen in today to learn about the…

Teaming makes it easier - even if that team is as small as two people. Even though the two may address implementing solutions from different vantage points or tasks, the common vision makes the pair more effective than either one can be separately. It is crucial that we all have that sort of relationship in our daily work with a partner who helps t…

Today, Clint discusses Service Standards. These are devices that provide clear, concise deliverables or expectations that are required of all staff of an organization. They provide the high-level basis upon which more detail-level components can be built as the means for delivering on these standards. He provides some examples provided by a recent …

Making a difference - it is at the heart of why we are in the healthcare profession. We each have a critical role to play in delivering great differences for our customers. Some days, we may do things that are are home-runs. Other days, our efforts may seem fairly routine (but are nonetheless vital that they happen). It is a great occurrence when o…

In any marketplace, there will be competitors for customers. Healthcare is no different. Your organization should naturally be doing its best to meet and exceed the customer needs for that marketplace. That said, while it may seem counter-intuitive to want to have good competitors, it is actually a good thing to have worthy competition fighting for…

Remember your Care Crowd Creed - Teaming Makes It Easier! One way we can utilize this aspect is by implementing the concept of Team Rounding. Making rounds doesn’t have to be an activity reserved only for management staff. Team members can take time to observe the goings-on of their environment and interact customers and fellow staff. There will be…

In healthcare, there will always be periods when things get a great deal busier than usual. That needs to be viewed as a good thing! Our customers don’t want to be customers in the first place, but as long as they are, we would rather them be our customers rather than the competitor’s down the road, in this economy especially. That concept of being…

That forth tenet of the Care Crowd Creed - ‘I make a difference’ - is huge. Without it, the first three tenets have little effect. If no one chooses to make a difference, then healthcare has a very hard climb uphill at being ‘cool’ with great customers and helpful, successful teams. As such, the key to making a difference starts with you accepting …

Tackling tough issues when and where they need to be dealt with sometimes requires an amount of assertiveness, but is necessary to break through logjams to not fall victim to time sensitivities. It is a necessary component to leadership and can be (and should be) practiced by all levels of staff members. As Clint has discussed on previous programs,…

In many sports, it is often a game of inches, where even a very small discrepancy can spell the difference between success and failure. It is often no different in healthcare. Our accuracy in our daily tasks is often the deciding factor in determining successful outcomes for our customers, and in following, our organizations. Even slight lapses in …

When you experience that initial moment of awe and excitement with a particular event, there is often an accompanying ‘glow’ on your face that indicates to others your inner buzz. Today, Clint discusses that moment that occurs so often with healthcare professionals. More importantly, he offers some tips and hints for keeping that glow on an ongoing…

The key thing about your future is that it is YOURS. You are ultimately in charge in getting where you want to go. No one else will do it for you. That said, not everyone works in a career that is ultimately where they want to be, but that is no reason why they can’t be using those downstream skills and talents in their current work environment. In…

As Spring has now sprung upon us, it is a great time of year to do our ‘Spring Cleaning’. In tandem with the changes now occurring in regards to the healthcare reform, any remnants of the ‘old way’ of doing things need to be swept out the door. Now is the time to be examining our systems, attitudes, policies, procedures and so forth to ensure that …

Teams exist in varying states of effectiveness. Sometimes 1+1+1=3 (the expected work gets done, but nothing else special is happening). ‘Pretend’ teams don’t even get that far. When synergy can be reached, 1+1+1 can = 4 as more gets done beyond just the baseline with less effort. Today, Clint discusses High Performance Teams where 1+1+1=10 on a con…

In real estate, the mantra is location, location, location. In a people business, such as healthcare, it is customer, customer, customer. In today’s episode, Clint discusses how this founding concept of putting the customer first is the basis upon which the entire entity of healthcare is built. As such, it is also the underlying basis of the Care C…

Last night, the House of Representatives voted to approve/move the Healthcare Reform bill on to the Senate for final disposition. Needless to say, change is likely coming. Today, Clint discusses how we need not get caught up in the ‘drama’ of change (the dynamic nature of healthcare is rarely static long anyway). Instead, it is suggested that we ta…

There are a wealth of positions open at many organizations today that are going unfilled because the organization is perhaps wary against hiring younger people. While there are some differences in the work styles/ethics of the younger, up-and-coming generation, that should not be used as an excuse not to hire them. In fact, we depend on their fresh…